Xbox One DVR needs an external hard drive to run

Earlier this week at Gamescom, Microsoft announced that the Xbox One will get free DVR functionality in 2016, but they didn’t mention how or where the saved content would be stored.

Today, project lead Richard Irving spoke during a presentation about the Xbox One’s dashboard redesign and explained that the DVR service wouldn’t record TV footage directly to the internal hard drive.

He said, “You need an external hard-drive specifically for DVR because we want to keep the [storage] paths optimized between playing games and watching TV. We don’t want them to interact with each other.”

In a previous presentation at Gamescom, Microsoft’s Mike Ybarra said the DVR function will not negatively impact the Xbox One’s performance. He also said that users could stream DVR saved content onto their Windows 10 computers and save recorded content onto their Windows 10 tablets for on-the-go viewing.

Subscription free over-the-air TV is already available for the Xbox One through a digital tuner which can be purchased on Amazon or through Microsoft directly. Microsoft also announced their partnership with Seagate to provide a 2TB external HD made specifically for the Xbox One and Xbox 360 priced at $110.

So would you spend $110 to watch your favorite TV shows across all of your Windows 10 devices?

About The Author

Nickolas Kusen is a video game journalist who is passionate about anything and everything related to games. Able to track his game lineage all the way back to the original Atari, Nick considers himself one of the OG's of console gaming.